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Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Championship Racing with Renato Canova, Part II: The Training of Caleb Ndiku

Some of the most popular posts on my blog are the
articles on the training schedules and coaching philosophy of Renato Canova, arguably
one of the most successful running coaches in the world.Canova, born in Italy, rose to prominence by
coaching many top Italian runners but is best-known now for his work with elite
Kenyan runners.The Olympic and World
Championship medalists he has coached are too many to list concisely.But what's perhaps more remarkable about
Renato Canova is his willingness to share the training schedules of his
athletes with the rest of the world. While other coaches keep their athletes' schedules tightly under wraps, Canova posts them online, usually at LetsRun.com, for anyone to look at.

This article concerns the last nine weeks of the training
of Caleb Ndiku in preparation for the 2014 World Indoor Championships at 3000m
in March.Ndiku, an incredibly talented
21-year-old Kenyan, secured the gold medal in a slow, tactical race with a long
kick from 500m out.As Ndiku lacked the
blistering finishing speed of other top runners, Canova designed his training
schedule to foster the development of a long, sustained drive to the
finish.The strategy worked out
brilliantly, as Ndiku covered the last 1000m in under 2:22—28.4 second 200
pace!

Most workouts in a Renato Canova training schedule are
prescribed using percentages of race pace.Canova does the math a little different than
an American might.Percentages are
always expressed as fractional deviations from the original pace—so to take 90%
of 5:00 mile pace, Canova (and I when figuring out the paces of these workouts)
would do 5 * 1.1 = 5.5 or 5:30 per mile, not 5 / 0.9 to get 5:33 per mile. All percentages portrayed in the schedule are calculated using this method.

Disclaimer

As usual, I need to caution that these
interpretations are wholly my own.I'm
not Renato Canova, so I can't guarantee that my analysis is correct.So take what I say with a grain of salt.With this schedule in particular, I had to
make a lot of educated guesses, as I can't compare it to a similar schedule
from another athlete preparing for the same race as I could with the other
Canova schedules I analyzed.Because of
this, it's hard to distinguish what might be an idiosyncratic workout that
plays to a unique strength of Ndiku, or something that is a part of the general
Canova plan. I also take responsibility for any typos or mistakes, of which there are sure to be at least one or two.

The
Training Schedule

Caleb Ndiku's last nine weeks of training are
available as a .pdf here.The paces of
his workouts are provided both in actual pace/splits and as percentages of 3k
and 5k pace.I used Ndiku's 3k
performance of 7:38 in Düsseldorf as a basis for the 3k pacing, and a converted
value (7:38 → 13:18) for his 5k fitness.

You will notice a ~4 week gap in the workouts around when Ndiku traveled to Europe to race.Canova did not provide Ndiku's schedule during this period, so
unfortunately I had to leave it blank. The schedule itself is sized to 17"x11" paper but can be easily printed at 11"x8.5", albeit in a pretty small font.The original LetsRun thread can be found here.

General Observations

As is usually the case with Canova's athletes (and most elites, I imagine), it's immediately apparent that Caleb Ndiku's training
is incredibly consistent.Ndiku usually
doubles between four and six times per week, and his "regeneration
runs" (easy runs or recovery runs in American parlance) are almost always
60-80min for the main run of the day and 30-45min for the secondary run.This continues even into the week before the
World Indoor Championships.

Though two 80min runs appear on the schedule,
there is a complete absence of a "true" long run, i.e. a single run
over 90min at an easy or moderate pace.This is no fluke—Canova's athletes very rarely do a long run at an easy
or moderate pace, though this type of workout is a staple for many Western
athletes.Canova's opposition to this is
rooted in the fact that a traditional long run does not provide the right training stimulus for a fit, world-class
athlete.For Ndiku, whose goal is to run
for just under eight minutes at near four-minute mile pace, how beneficial
would a long continuous run be, even at 6-minute mile pace? Caleb Ndiku would doubtless
have no problem running for two hours at six minute pace (as an example), but
that type of run is so disconnected from the purpose of his training that it is
not worth doing.

Instead, Canova trains Ndiku's endurance with
progression runs (both long and short), structured fartlek runs, and short fast
runs over a measured distance.This is
mixed into the schedule along with long repeats in interval workouts and speed sessions at faster-than-race-pace.

Another thing
worth noting is that Ndiku's runs in the few weeks leading up to the World Indoor Championships are not shortened at
all—four days out from the 3k prelim, he's doing the same 60min / 40min double he was doing two
months prior.As someone who is not a
fan of the traditional peaking model practiced by most coaches, this warms my
heart.

Workout recovery tend to be generous.Most coaches that I know like to focus on the
cumulative fatigue of an interval workout—each individual repeat in a classic session
like 10x400m isn't too challenging on its own; the desired effect is elicited
by the mounting fatigue throughout the workout.The majority of Canova's workouts, however, grant very generous
recovery, especially when the repeat is
done at high speeds.This ensures that
each individual repeat is done at a very high quality and allows more "extension
of race-specific velocity"—i.e. long repeats done at race pace. Caleb Ndiku also goes into his most important workouts fairly fresh.

In order to develop your max. specific quality, you must be
FRESH in your mind and your muscles. When you work for increasing your ability
in ACCUMULATING [lactate] you can be tired, but this can happen only in General
and Fundamental period [which come before the special and specific periods]. When you work for increasing your ability in
PRODUCING [lactate] you must be Fresh, this happens during SPECIAL and SPECIFIC
PERIOD. Therefore, athletes can have care in recovering before going for a
training of high quality. When you go in SPECIFIC season, you use more
intensity (and remember that the intensity in middle and long distance is a
specifism of EXTENSION AT THE SPEED OF THE RACE), consequently you must use
more recover[y].

The
Workouts

I won't go through each workout point by point;
rather, I'd like to highlight some trends that I observed when looking at the
structure of Ndiku's workouts.The
schedule that Canova prepared contains the following types of workouts:

Fartlek
runs: 60-80min at an easy pace with 30-45sec bursts of speed every 2min

These aren't really "workout" per se—these function both as a way to get more quality into the weekly
schedule and as a prelude to more race-specific change-of-pace workouts.Caleb Ndiku does this kind of run about once
per week.On at least some occasions,
the bursts of speed are at 4:25/mi pace.For Ndiku, this is about 91% of 3k pace and 97% of 5k pace.However, given the intentionally vague
parameters of the workout, I don't think the exact pace is hugely important
(otherwise, he'd be doing intervals on the track), nor is it particularly challenging. These fartlek sessions function as moderate-intensity training sessions to prep for a bigger workout or freshen up after one.

Uphill
sprints: 10-15x80m uphill sprint with long recovery

These sessions also fall into the not-quite-a-real-workout
category.In the past, Canova has
explained that these uphill sprints, done about once per week in Caleb Ndiku's
schedule, function to increase the maximum recruitment of muscle fibers.To this end, they must be done at maximum
speed—otherwise you aren't getting the right stimulus.But, because the sprint is at such a high
intensity, the recovery is also very long (several minutes, probably). These are done following a short run of 30-40min at an easy pace.

These workouts occur twice in the training schedule, about once per month.The first one involves 1600, 1200, 800, 300 at
increasing speeds, interspersed with 5x200m on either end of the 1200.The speeds of the long repeats can be
considered "specific" training since they are within 5% of 3k pace
(and 5k pace too).The 200s and the
max-speed 300 at the end probably serve as precursors to the kind of
change-of-pace and acceleration work that will eventually be done WITHIN the
individual repeats themselves (cf. the 5x1000m workout two weeks later with
alternating 200s).

The second long cut-down workout is done eight
days out from the 3k prelim in Poland.This
time, the repeats get faster, but so does the speed WITHIN each repeat.This is likely to prepare Caleb Ndiku for the
long acceleration towards the finish that he will need to win the World Indoor 3k
title.

In both long cut-down workouts, the recovery is
quite long, ensuring that Ndiku can run each repeat feeling fresh.

Two short
cut-down interval workouts (ex. 4*(600-500-400-300) with 2min between reps and 6min between sets)

The short cut-down workout complements the longer
cut-down work in the schedule by providing more race-specific speeds (± 5% of 3k
race pace) as well as practicing accelerating within the workout.It also serves as a prelude to the next short
cut-down style workout.

The second short cut-down workout isn't really an
"interval" session because it's just a 1600m run with each 400
progressively faster.This is the last
real workout before Ndiku travels to Poland, and it can be considered
race-specific in terms of speed AND in terms of execution; that is, he's
praciticing doing exactly what he need to do one week later, which is
accelerate off of a brisk pace.Notice
that the last 1200m of this 1600 is at 2:25 km pace.Ndiku's last kilometer at Worlds? 2:22.Canova and Ndiku build the race they want from the ground up.

A
"Special Block" to build special endurance and speed

By "endurance" and "speed," I
mean something very specific in the framework of Canova's training philosophy.Special endurance refers to paces near 90% of race
pace, and special speed refers to paces near 110% of race pace.A special block is a day with two workouts, one in the morning and one
in the evening.

The special block, a unique feature to Canova's
training schedules, attempts to stimulate new gains in fitness by providing a
very large stimulus to the athlete, then allowing him to recover for several
days after.In this special block, the
morning session builds endurance at 88% of 3k pace while the evening session
builds speed at 109-112% of 3k pace.Each session is preceded by a 6km moderate run, though I'm not sure
why.It might be to up the overall
volume for the day (over 15 miles, not including any cool-down), or it might be
to provide a mid-level aerobic stimulus.Do note that the two days before and the three days after the special
block are fairly easy, allowing Ndiku to come into the workout fresh and to
recover well afterward.

Fast progressive runs, and long repeats to build endurance (ex. 4.4mi / 7km starting at 4:50/mi and progressing to 4:34/mi)

These sessions are more varied, and sometimes only
constitute part of a workout.Again,
"endurance" means something around 90% of race pace.Examples would be the 3000m repeat in 8:26 in
the second week and the 7km progression run two weeks out from the 3k
final.This endurance pace eventually
serves as the basis for the 5x1km alternating pace workout.

One
"alternator" workout: 5x1000m alternating 200s in 34 and 29 with
5-6min recovery

This workout appears to function to integrate the
endurance and race-specific work that's been done prior, while also practicing
the kind of pace surges that are likely in a championship race.It is yet another example of the kind of race and event-specific
preparations that Canova prepares for his athletes.The schedule would undoubtedly be different
if Ndiku was preparing for a fast, rabbited 3k race.

One final workout of 8x200m following a short easy run three days out from the first big race

This is a feature seen in the 2011 World Championship schedules as well. These 200s, which have 2-3 minutes of recovery, probably function as a way to freshen up and prepare for fast running. While they are fairly fast (27), Caleb Ndiku doesn't blast them all-out either. Surely he's capable of running 200m in 25 seconds during a workout, but he holds back in this final preparatory workout.

Conclusion

Training for championship races is a different
proposition than training to run fast.This is evident by looking at Canova's schedules.A significant portion of Ndiku's workouts
were geared towards building the ability to accelerate at the end of a race,
and this paid off in his performance at the World Indoor Championships in Poland.

The overall training schedule is very complex, so
I'm less confident in my analysis this time, but there are still a few things
we can be fairly certain about:

Like other elite Kenyans, Ndiku's training is
very consistent.Doubling is a regular occurrence,
as are 60-70 minute runs.

Long continuous runs over 80min are absent, as they do not provide the right kind of training stimulus. Instead, fast continuous runs and long interval sessions train endurance in a more race-specific manner.

Regular fartlek sessions inject some faster
running into easy and moderate runs, though they do not appear to be
particularly challenging.They also
serve as a "general" background for race-specific pace change
workouts later.

Interval workouts that are close to race pace usually feature either changes of pace or accelerations near the end of repeats. These are
used to prepare the athlete for the championship-style racing to come.

The schedule uses the "special block"
workout to increase the modulation, or day-to-day variability, in the stress of
the training schedule.The special block
improves special endurance in one session and special speed in another.

With the exception of the final three days
before the Indoor Championships, there is no drastic reduction in training
volume like you might expect with a traditional peak.

The amount of race-specific training increases
as the big race draws near.

Like in the schedules of
other Canova athletes, the final workout before the big race is several quick
200s with generous recovery.

The overall mixture of paces and workouts is always very
even—no speed is neglected in the final nine weeks of preparation for a big
race.Paces range from less than 50% of
3k pace to "max speed" over the course of the schedule.In Renato Canova's own words, "THE ONLY QUALITY
THAT YOU LOSE IS THAT ONE YOU DON'T TRAIN."

I hope you've found this training analysis
helpful.Even if we can't tease out the
logic behind every single training session, it is still enlightening to take a
look at how the training comes together.What do you think? What do you see when you look at Caleb Ndiku's
schedule?

1 comment:

Great article John! I was shocked at first by his lack of a long run, but I see now that it doesn't relate directly to a race like the 3k. It'd be really interesting to see what Ndiku's sleep schedule and diet were during this time. Not as important as the training schedule, but still definitely worth thinking about.

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About Me

I'm a recent (2011) graduate of Carleton College and a long-time student of distance running. My interests include elite training, biomechanics, injury prevention and treatment, supplemental exercises, training for younger runners, and coaching philosophies. Currently, I live in the Twin Cities, write, and coach at Edina High School.